Climate Change Litigation Is Hurting American Consumers
Left-wing billionaires and the United Nations are trying to raise energy prices with climate litigation, and it’s hurting Americans.
The UN issued a climate change report last week that recommended activists and liberal state authorities sue energy companies over climate change. The report’s author made an unhinged statement that elevated climate change hysteria to 11.
“We have reached a point where the best-case outcome is widespread death and suffering by the end of this century, and the worst-case puts humanity on the brink of extinction,” Philip Alston, UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, declared.
Alson put nearly all the blame on energy companies and said national governments are “complicit” in this state of affairs. His recommendation was to use the courts to push these companies into submission.
Litigation has become the favorite weapon among climate change activists. Attorneys general in Massachusetts and New York have filed lawsuits against Exxon. Multiple cities and counties have sued energy companies over environmental concerns.
However, this litigation won’t solve climate change or improve the lives of average Americans. It will just drive up energy prices for average Americans and encourage more liberal prosecutors to waste taxpayer dollars.
Along with the globalists at the UN, big money in America is backing this frivolous litigation. The Rockefeller family is a major backer of these efforts. The Rockefeller Brothers fund donated at least $200,000 to the Global Warming Legal Action Project, one of the primary campaigns to punish energy companies in court. The Project aimed to “develop and apply a tort law approach to global warming that will require major greenhouse gas emitters and fossil fuel companies to internalize the costs of their contributions to global warming.”
It also provided assistance to states which pursued legal action against energy companies.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund contributed $50,000 to the Conservation Law Foundation, which sued Exxon in 2016. The same fund serves as an institutional donor to EarthRights International and gave $200,000 to the Niskanen Center. Both of those groups are playing an instrumental role in climate lawsuits filed by various municipalities.
The Niskanen Center’s involvement in climate litigation is particularly fascinating. The non-profit was founded by self-proclaimed libertarians and touts itself as a Never Trump center-right group. Yet their involvement in climate litigation undermines this self-image. If their litigation succeeds, it would effectively increase costs on taxpayers to comply with UN standards. That doesn’t sound very libertarian.
The other big money sources for climate litigation should shock conservatives and libertarians as well. Billionaire Tom Steyer, the man behind the multi-million “Impeach Trump” ads, is one such man. His Super PAC, NextGen Climate Action, was briefed on the legal strategy against Exxon.
George Soros is another billionaire backing climate litigation. His Open Society Foundations gives six-figure donations to EarthRights International every year. Some of the progressive prosecutors he’s backed in district attorney races plan on pursuing litigation against energy companies.
These punitive measures won’t solve the problem whatsoever. China and India will continue to pollute at astronomical rates while climate activists celebrate their pyrrhic victories over energy companies. Most of these companies have made tremendous strides in delivering more earth-friendly energy. But that’s not enough for left-wing billionaires and UN officials.
The litigation would only hurt the American consumer and make us more dependent on foreign energy. If the UN was serious about this threat, it would exert pressure on the worst state polluters.
Instead, the international body prefers bullying fossil fuel companies to satisfy left-wing fantasies.
Make no mistake: climate litigation is not the way to make the world green again.
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